1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicles powered by compressed gaseous fuels, most notably natural gas, propane and hydrogen. More specifically, the present invention relates to a chassis of an automotive vehicle which is specifically adapted to accommodate pressure vessels in which the compressed gaseous fuel is stored.
2. Description of the Related Art
Chassis have traditionally been designed for use with gasoline tanks. This has, over the course of the development of the automobile created a certain standard architecture of the chassis that is suitable for gasoline storage. Although other fuels have been used to power automotive vehicles, these fuels have been mostly liquid (methanol, ethanol) and therefore, the above-mentioned standard architecture of the chassis does not need to be changed much to accommodate such liquid fuels. In the case of electric cars, some "ground up" vehicle development has resulted in modified chassis designs adapted to the specific characteristics of electric cars.
Compressed gaseous fuels (natural gas, propane and hydrogen) have been used to power automotive vehicles to some degree for decades. Customarily, existing cars designed to be powered by gasoline have been retrofitted for use with compressed gaseous fuels.
However, the properties of compressed gaseous fuels are fundamentally different than those of liquid fuels. The most notable aspect of these differences is that compressed gaseous fuels must be stored in pressure vessels hereinafter referred to as fuel cylinders. Further, compressed gaseous fuels occupy about three times the volume of gasoline in order to provide the same amount of power and range to an automobile engine.
Accordingly, the retrofitting of gasoline powered cars to accommodate compressed gaseous fuels is unsatisfactory because of the rather limited space available for storing the voluminous fuel cylinders. Even cars which have been so retrofitted have a limited mileage range. This limited mileage range is a serious impediment to wide-spread acceptance of compressed gaseous fuel-powered vehicles despite the positive aspects of such vehicles on the environment when compared to gasoline powered vehicles.